It’s been a really busy week, so I haven’t had a chance to write about last weekend until now. Well, it was indeed a nice weekend. Except for the fact that it rained the entire time (and has been raining ever since). Can’t have it all, I guess! Anyway, last weekend Leen and I went to the city to meet Alain and Jija Duribreux. He’s French, she’s Malaysian, and we were all put together by Najah, who went to school with Jija many moons ago.
We met at the Starbucks at Tee Mall and hit it off right away. What was probably supposed to be a couple hours chatting over iced chocolate turned into an entire weekend of great conversation, delicious food, and reckless spending. We ate pizza at Newland’s, did some shopping, played some ridiculously expensive arcade games at Grandview Mall, did a traditional dance from Yunnan province (don’t ask), ate ice-cream at DQ, ate a huge meal at an Indonesian restaurant called Pandan (satay! oh how I’d been missing good satay until that night!), then went back to the Duribreux residence for some more great conversation. And that was just Saturday! We ended up staying the night because there was no way we’d be catching the last bus back to the armpit of Guangzhou our neighbourhood.
On Sunday we had a nice breakfast and more great conversation. Leen and Jija were becoming fast friends and discovered they have a few things in common. Alain and I also got along quite well, despite the fact that we’ve got such different personalities. Still, we have a few things in common too, like the overwhelming urge to flee when the ladies started feasting on durian. And I think going for a haircut together was a sufficient bonding experience. He didn’t want to go to that particular hair salon alone because the hairdressers gave him the creeps. I guess I could see why after one of them gave him a business card that had the name LICKY in big letters.
Anyway, the four of us then went to a little cafe where I had a nice tuna sandwich and a chocolate peanut butter cookie espresso frappalatte (I swear that’s what it was called), then took a cab to a huge sports outlet called Decathlon, where we got some good deals on clothes but spent most of our time playing (hey, watch me cruising in these inline skates!). This was followed by another cab ride, photos in the lobby of the luxurious Garden Hotel, and a big meal at the nearest Subway (mmm…steak and cheese). Then of course Leen and I took the 862B back to our little college. Whew!
If we continue hanging out with Alain and Jija we’re going to be fat (I think we probably ate way more than they did) and broke (although it seems like they footed the bill for most of our adventures). But we’ve got less than two months to hang out with them, so what the heck? They’re lovely people. We’re looking forward to a few more fun weekends before we head back to Malaysia. Merci, mes amis!
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9 Comments
Alain et Jija, vont-ils en Malaisie?
Thanks for the article. I am new to your blog and i like what I see. I look forward to your future work.
Jordan & Leen, i’m definitely listing this article under ‘favourites’! We hate the fact that u both have to return to KL so soon, but one thing’s for sure; we’re going to be lifelong friends! we had such a great time on the weekend (i love eating durian with leen!), pls be warned that ‘fat attracts fat’ he he. well, we may be fat but we sure know how to have fun, and u guys are such great fun!
many thanks to najah for this newfound friendship, here’s a toast to our new, longlasting friendship:-)
wow, anisah speaks french! Impressive!..unfortunately my four years of marriage to alain does not make me a francophone:-(
I realize it is one of the most beautiful languages in the world ,yet i find it too difficult, especially the grammar part…
to answer anisah’s question: we r going to be based here in GZ for at least the next two years. (we miss KL and my k.kangsar town like crazy:-()
i always missed the good part. sigh.
Jija, salam perkenalan. I learnt French as an undergraduate in Malaysia. Living in London, with a few French friends, the occasional trips to Paris and Brussels do help me not to lose French. Having said that, I don’t speak it to acceptable fluency to put it on my CV. It’s passable. One memorable (in hindsight, but it was embarassing when it happened) was when I came back to London from Paris on Eurostar. The British and French immigration officials were ten paces away from each other. It was almost midnight, I was hurrying to walk home from the station. I didn’t realise I had past the French officials and had came up to the British. I continued in French. The officials stared at me, and smugly told me, “Hey, Commonwealth passport, can you not speak English?” Oooops!
Azlin, no worries..maybe we can meet up when alain & I balik kampung, don’t know when yet lah, coz cuti is too limited:-(
Anisah, salam perkenalan to u too:-) I tried many, many times to access your website but to no avail:-(
maybe it’s being banned here, like jordan’s once was..read reviews that your writing is brilliant:-)maybe i can fwd it 2u(the review), let me ask jordan for ur email k, hope it’s not a prob…i bet u prefer the fromage from france compared to the ones sold at sainsbury’s or tesco’s? u’re sooo lucky u’re in london! i love mint wafers (after eight), i can eat those thins non stop! talk about being a glutton:-)i’m also a self-confessed chocoholic…chocs here are sooo mahal lah..hmm, God has a reason why He placed me in guangzhou:-)
Jija, I think chocophobic people have a mental illness! hehe. Here’s to all the chocoholic people everywhere! Yes, my website is undesirable there. I don’t know about brilliance, i’d be curious to know what the reviews say. Yeah, Jordan can give you my email address. Posting it in on a website is like opening front, back and side door to spammers.
Anisah: Je ne sais pas!
Chocoholic: Hmmm…looks like chocolate, but smells just like spam!
Jija: Yes, here’s to friendship! Thanks, Najah! And hey, we can study French together. Mine’s pretty rusty. Oh, and I’ll send you Anisah’s email address tomorrow, OK?
Azlin: It’s all good, we won’t all be in Guangzhou forever!
Hi there,
This is going to sound really strange but I think Jija D was a college mate from UUM. I would like to get in touch with her, so can you please forward my e-mail to her? We lost touch after graduation way back in 1998.
Thanks.